Posted on 07/30/2011 5:32:26 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
Shooting seen as sign of violent super power in decline
(Newser) – While Americans are wringing their hands, trying to make some sense of a senseless act, the rest of the world is shaking its head in dismay. To Europeans in particular, the shooting deaths of 6 people and the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is symptomatic of a gun-obsessed nation rattled by the doubt and pessimism of a super power in decline, notes the Christian Science Monitor. Commentators from both the right and left in newspapers in London, Paris, and Berlin decry the toll of rabid political rhetoric, slipping fortunes, and entanglement in two wars.
“This murderous attack came from an atmosphere of discord and self-doubt because America is experiencing the limits of its power on a daily basis," writes the conservative Die Welt. "It has never been like this. There always was the motto: ‘Yes, we can.’ Today, widespread pessimism prevails, because of the financial crisis, and because of Iraq and Afghanistan." The shootings have struck a painful note in Holland, where politician Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh were murdered in a riven nation. "People in Holland as in the US are concerned about the tone of our debate," said Peter van Os, who writes on Dutch politics from the Hague.
The eurptrash are still whining and trying to place the blame on political discourse for the actions of a psycho?
BTW, Europeans still hold the record for deaths from firearms, explosives and bric a brac falling off the side of buildings.
Everything in the article defies logic.
Euro-trash being euro-trash. I recently got a note from a Danish-eunuch that I had the misfortune to be acquainted with in the past. He was whining about how America didn’t appreciate the pResident in the White House. He said all of Europe thought 0bami was so much better than President Bush and was making America respected again by Euros and the rest of the world. He also believes that the Euro will save Europe. Rule by Euro-crats in Brussels is much better than any national bureaucracy. And, 0bama keeps pet unicorns at the White House.
Giffords is supposedly alive and well.
She even saw her husband fly off into space on the space shuttle, one of the most iconic symbols of America’s can do spirit.
Sure it’s true, that no one has seen Giffords, and many suspect Obama is pulling a “Weekend at Bernies” with her.
Its also true that the Shuttle program has come to a conclusion, but what are Europes great accomplishments?
Burying 76 Norwegians? Gassing and burning 6 million Jews?
Starting 2 World wars?
STFU Mary Papenfuss
Unlike Norway, uh, wait a minute.....nevermind.
The Monitor no longer publishes a print edition.
They gave Yasser Arafat a Nobel Peace Prize for exactly the same thing.
The irony is lost on them.
Nobel invented TNT.
interesting observation. we were stuck only getting over the air TV for a month and the channels consisted of various Asian news channels (which I found entertaining)and a few European channels that were actually disturbing. Their media projects a US that is not based in reality. We were laughing watching RT (Russian Television in english) and they were decrying the lack of personal freedoms in the US. A Putin controlled media was discussing the lack of freedoms in the US.. infriggincredible. They had as “journalists” the likes of Ted Rall, a hideous female blogger with hygiene problems and Adam Kokesh and every America hating leftist in need of a few bucks. Rall and Kokesh would have had a Polonium enema a long time ago in Putin’s Russia but they go on Russian TV to complain about the lack of freedom in the US. Whenever that Kokesh guy and Ted Rall pull a stunt, they never present him as someone on Putin’s payroll just a “activist”..
There was never a neutral or pro-America view presented, even on the Asian stations where Americans were shown as dunces and foils to the superior Asians. The German, French and British stations were a little less brutal but very distorted nonetheless.
If this is what they see, it’s no wonder they have a distorted perspective of reality.
Noah Webster from 1787:
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive."
Beam MSNBC over there and it would be a bonus. Think about that.
As I recall it, when Pooty-Poot visited Dubya in Texas, he thought that all the freedoms he observed along the way were a show that was being put on for him.
I have visited Europe several times, most recently in 1999.
On that last trip I witnessed heavily armed & armored guards/police in most public places - airports, train/subway stations, parks, pedestrian areas, & just patrolling the streets on foot, in pairs. There were plenty of rolling patrols, too, in those dinky little police cars.
Now, you might think that makes you feel safer, but instead, it made me feel there must be some serious danger to worry about.
Any place that has this much security has something to fear. Scary it must be if it is virtually illegal to defend yourself from attack.
The common solution to crime in most places is high walls, iron bars, & heavy gates/doors. I have seen entire carports encased in iron bars. In many places, the security measures seem to cost more than the house/business is worth.
We’ll remember what Europe said about us the next time they whine for us to come and rescue them from some egomaniac they allowed to gain power. (We’ll have enough problems cleaning up the mess of a traitorous egomaniac that his fellow travelers and the fifth-column media excreted on this country.)
WW-I & WW-II.
Pure propaganda
I live in western Wisconsin where there is a very large percentage of people of Norwegian descent. A further very large percentage of these Norwegian-Americans own guns. The murder rate around here is probably not any higher than is found in a mostly gun-free Norway. I wonder what the Norwegians who visit their American cousins think when they see all the firearms but notice the lack of violence. Surely, to the European mind, merely having guns around increases violence, doesn’t it?
Newser, the accumulator of everything HuffPoo....no thanks.
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